Typically, in a cellular telecommunication network, a Base Station (BS) maintains a Global Neighbor List (GNL) which includes a list of neighbor BSs in the vicinity of the particular BS. The GNL may be transmitted to each Mobile Station (MS) currently being served by the BS. On receiving the GNL, each MS may search for the neighbor BSs listed in the GNL and report a signal strength measurement between itself and the neighbor BSs. Based on these reports, the serving BS may determine a neighbor BS to which a MS may be potentially handed over.
The GNL may usually be manually defined by a network administrator and provided to the BS. The network administrator may identify BSs surrounding a particular BS from a network map and provide this list to the BS. This list of neighbor BSs may typically involve a large number of neighbors that may or may not be relevant to all the MSs within a serving area or cell. In other words, not all the neighbor BSs may be of equal importance to a particular MS. Also, since the GNL is manually defined, it may only be updated on a weekly or monthly basis. Thus, any changes in the network topography such as addition or removal of BSs may not be immediately reflected in the GNL. In such cases, if a BS that has been removed or is currently inactive is included in the GNL, then each MS may spend undue resources searching for the BS in order to measure signal strength between itself and the BS. This may cause battery drain at the MS. Further, a similar problem may occur when the GNL includes a large number of neighbor BSs and the MS is instructed to measure signal strength between itself and each of these neighbor BSs. Processing the large number of neighbors by the MSs may be processor intensive leading to high battery consumption.